Their diamond-rich lands in South Africa were taken. Now they want it back

There is a disturbing contrast with South Africa’s remote west coast.

800km (500 miles) – The journey north from Cape Town begins with views of great natural beauty that dissolve into a moon-like landscape as you wind along the long road, and approach the northern border.

And the scars left by the lucrative diamond mining industry aren’t just physical.

Living in the midst of environmental degradation in South Africa’s far north-west, the impoverished local Nama community – also known as Namaqualand – wonder what has happened to the wealth their land produces.

Some of the crores earned went into nation building, but it does not seem to have stayed within the region.

The Nama, which straddles South Africa and Namibia, are descended from indigenous nomadic peoples – the Khoi and San – seen as the original human inhabitants of this part of the world.

Despite winning a legal battle for land and mining rights in the Richtersveld, which is part of Namaqualand, more than two decades ago, many in the community argue that they have seen no benefit.

Standing amid the crumbling empty shell of an old mine in the coastal border town of Alexander Bay, Andries Joseph, who worked here two decades ago, shakes his head.

“There are no jobs, that’s the problem. The people are in disarray and everyone has turned back. Buildings are crumbling. Unemployment is sky high,” he says.

The area’s diamond industry has declined in recent years, as more gems are believed to have been found in the ground, leaving a trail of economic and social problems.

About a kilometer away from this abandoned mine is a residential area of ​​a few houses, a dilapidated church building and a hospital with some damaged windows providing basic services.

The local authority’s development plan describes “dilapidated” water and electricity infrastructure as well as poor roads affecting access to things like healthcare.

A century ago, prospectors discovered precious stones south of the Orange River, which now forms part of South Africa’s border with Namibia, leading to a diamond rush that changed the land forever.

But Nama already knew about the gems.

Martinus Fredericks says, “In our family, they used to teach children to count with diamonds.

In 2012, Nama elders appointed him as their leader in South Africa. The 60-year-old man says he was asked to fight for the return of his ancestral land.

According to Mr. Fredericks, the Nama were once shepherds and traders until European “settlers came and disrupted their lives.”

The area they inhabited was taken over by the Cape Colony in the mid-19th century – in what is now South Africa – and then, after diamonds were discovered in the 1920s, the Nama were cleared from the land around the Orange River.

Nothing has changed during the years of the apartheid system, or since the first democratic elections and the end of white-minority rule in 1994.

The new African National Congress-led government maintained its earlier position that the diamond wealth generated in these parts could be better served by sharing it with the rest of the country.

Nama was not happy and that unrest continues to this day.

“You go to an area like the Richtersveld … you see how helpless people are,” Mr Fredericks says.

“They are unemployed. They live hand to mouth, and then there are no real prospects.

“I’m not against development, but it has to be to the extent that it benefits the community as a partner.”

Things must be different.

After a five-year legal battle with the state and the state-owned mining company, Alexcor, which reached the country’s highest court, judges ruled in favor of the Nama community in 2003.

The Constitutional Court said that Nama has an inalienable right to his ancestral land and mineral rights there.

However, four years later, Alexcor reached an agreement with the Richterveld Communal Property Association (CPA), allegedly representing Nama, which gave the company 51% of the mineral rights while 49% went to the community and was called the Richterveld Mining Company.

But Mr Fredericks argues that the CPA does not represent the name and that the agreement was made without wider community consent. He alleges that despite the Constitutional Court’s order, even after 20 years, he is yet to benefit from the contract or any property he has acquired over the decades.

In a statement to the BBC, Alexkor said, “It is wrong to say that the community has not benefited from the land claims”.

Alexcor said it paid Richtersveld Investment Holding Company (RIHC) 190 million rand ($11 million; £8.4 million) “in compensation” and 50 million rand ($2.9 million) in development grants over a three-year period.

But the chairman of Alexcor’s board of directors, Dineo Peta, who took over earlier this year, admitted that the company was “not oblivious to the fact that the community is not receiving the full financial benefit of the operation”. In an interview with the BBC, he blamed “mismanagement and malfeasance within Alexcore”.

The previous management was the subject of an investigation by a special commission known as “state capture”.. The commission’s 2022 report found corruption – those findings are currently under investigation but no convictions have been brought.

In a recent parliamentary hearing, the issue of what happened to the money transferred to the CPA was raised.

An MP, Bino Farmer, said that in a briefing, the Select Committee on Agriculture, Land Reforms and Mineral Resources heard that the CPA was “inoperative” from the Department of Rural Development.

He added that “it has also come to light that the department has paid more than 300 million rand ($17.6 million) and still the people of the community have not received anything”.

The CPA was not present at the hearing but the Chairman of the Select Committee said that “it has expressed dissatisfaction, stating that the relevant national departments have not provided sufficient support in its implementation. [Constitutional] court order”

The BBC has contacted the CPA several times to find out what happened to the money but has not received a response.

“[We] Should be in a much better position because we are the original custodians of the land,” says Mr Fredericks.

Besides money, the community leader has another concern: the environment.

“Big companies come in, they tear up the land, they take what they can, and they just leave without rehabilitating, leaving the receiving community to deal with the after effects of their mining,” he alleged.

“The Nama people used to mine themselves, but they did it sustainably, they knew how to use the land’s resources but also how to settle the land after use.”

The damage left behind by commercial mining is hard to miss.

Some mines are abandoned, and there are few signs of rehabilitation.

Instead, there was clear evidence of evacuation, where the earth had been dug up, leaving an unsightly landscape.

The mine at Hondeclipby, once owned by the mining giant, Trans Hex, appeared to be abandoned.

It is not part of the Richterveld region but is still considered Nama land.

In a letter to the BBC, Trans Hex said it had sold the site five years ago, but “while holding the mining rights it had complied with its legal obligations, including making full financial arrangements for the rehabilitation of the mining areas”.

But now that the site has been sold, Trans Hex is no longer responsible for rehabilitation, it added.

Another mining giant, De Beers, has sold its interests in mines on the West Coast and says it has a responsibility to repair the environment.

But in an email to the BBC it said “as part of a 2023 sale agreement with Klenzi Holdings, De Beers Consolidated Mines committed 50 million rand ($3 million) to support rehabilitation work in the area”.

Now there are concerns that the environmental damage could go further south as mining companies slowly make their way along the coast.

The BBC has asked the Department of Forests, Fisheries and Environment to respond to claims by several mining companies that they have not adequately rehabilitated the land they mined.

Dion George, who was minister until last month, was unavailable for comment, saying communication through the media was “not helpful and not leading to progress”.

The new minister, Willy Acamp, in place for less than a month, was not yet in a position to comment.

But Mr. Fredericks is clear about what happens next.

“The government should return that which is ours,” he says.

To change things, he has started legal action against the CPA who is said to be working on behalf of his community.

“There can be no Naam people without control of Naam land. A Naam person cannot be separated from Naam land because there is an inherent connection between the person and the land.”

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